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Date — 16 September, 2011

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A bestseller classic, exclusively crafted in platinum, finely decorated with a silver-plated dial and blue moon phase display, the new limited Portuguese Perpetual Calendar (Ref. 502305) is now available in IWC Hong Kong and Macau boutiques.

It is the Portuguese watch which one might easily have imagined on the wrist of famous seafarers. Learned individuals with the necessary far-sightedness, spirit of discovery and a concrete vision of the future. Because the future is precisely the area of expertise of this particular time machine, which is as beguiling as it is technically impressive. The perpetual calendar, invented 25 years ago, lives on here in all its original complexity and genius – in conjunction with an IWC-manufactured large movement from the 50000-calibre family with a seven-day power reserve.

The new Portuguese Perpetual Calendar in a 44.2-millimetre platinum case is a time machine of sheer perfection. This elegant, up-to-the-minute timepiece leaves virtually no wish unfulfilled: perpetual calendar, four-digit year display, and a seven-day automatic movement with the Pellaton winding system and a power reserve display. This watch with its celestial ballet, perfectly choreographed, is made for watch connoisseurs who appreciate both, the masterfully engineering and the classical, timeless elegance of the Portuguese Perpetual Calendar which is – in platinum – limited to 250 pieces worldwide.

This is an ideal combination for a complicated watch with calendar indications displaying the date, day, month, year in four digits and perpetual moon phase. The watch displays advance completely autonomously, mechanically programmed and synchronized with one another. Save for a leap day correction that becomes necessary in February 2100, this continues uninterrupted and without any intervention on the part of the wearer, who simply needs to input the required kinetic energy via the highly efficient Pellaton winding system of the automatic movement when wearing the watch. According to the complicated Gregorian calendar, which always assures years of almost constant length, the leap day that would be due to occur is absent at the end of February in the year in question, 2100, and this will necessitate an adjustment by a watchmaker. It might thus be appropriate to ensure that one’s grandson or great-grandson is aware of this fact. In that faroff year, incidentally, the century slide at the end of a long transmission chain will also be advanced by a couple of millimetres, and the numeral “21” for the next hundred years set in the display window in place of the currently indicated “20” to make the year display complete.

The Portuguese Perpetual Calendar is available with the classic cut-out moon phase display when observed from the northern hemisphere. The Earth’s satellite waxes onto this miniature stage from the left behind the semicircular setting becomes visible in the middle as a full moon and wanes on the right side behind the second semicircle. It is accompanied on the moon disc by small raised stars.

As far as the key astronomical indication of the Portuguese Perpetual Calendar, the moon, is concerned, it is able to match the precision of scientific instruments: in these watch models – and in these alone – the gearing has been modified, thanks to the available space, so as to permit the moon cycle to be displayed with unprecedented accuracy. A tiny residual error of 12 seconds per lunar period (29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes and 3 seconds) will add up to a deviation of just one day after 577 years. In other words: only the moon in the heavens is more accurate according to our current state of knowledge. And then only by a small margin.

The Portuguese Perpetual Calendar in platinum is available in IWC Boutiques in Hong Kong and Macau.

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